Charleston Church Shooting

[Locutus]

Any thoughts on the Charleston, SC church shooting?

[Henry Hawk]

Any thoughts on the Charleston, SC church shooting?

It really sucks!  Very heart breaking....they need to burn this kid at the stake.

[Henry Hawk]

I think this message from Ben Carson is what message from OUR POTUS should have more like, instead of taking that situation and making it a political issue, like he ALWAYS does.

[Exterminator]

I think this message from Ben Carson is what message from OUR POTUS should have more like, instead of taking that situation and making it a political issue, like he ALWAYS does.

You mean like you just did?   

[Henry Hawk]

You mean like you just did?   

YES! Exactly!!!!

I not the POTUS...just an annoying conservative on a liberal forum...    That is my role on here.

[Exterminator]

YES! Exactly!!!!

I not the POTUS...just an annoying conservative on a liberal forum...    That is my role on here.

You clearly need a hobby.

[Henry Hawk]

I think this message from Ben Carson is what message from OUR POTUS should have more like, instead of taking that situation and making it a political issue, like he ALWAYS does.

I am seriously trying to make a point on just how a classy president would address such a tragedy.  Trying to build relations and restore hope.  Not being racially motivated and politically motivated.  I think this is important role of a POTUS.

[Palehorse]

I am seriously trying to make a point on just how a classy president would address such a tragedy.  Trying to build relations and restore hope.  Not being racially motivated and politically motivated.  I think this is important role of a POTUS.

I never understand the "more gun control/Legislation" perspective that always gets dragged out by both sides of the aisle in this tragedies.

Someone needs to explain to me just how adding additional hoops for ALREADY law abiding firearm owners to jump through, does ANYTHING to restrict the ability of those who pay no attention to the laws we have in place already and thumb their noses at such laws anyway, to obtain firearms illegally?

When you take away the ability of a law abiding citizenry to arm itself against those who would do them harm, then only those who intend to do them harm will have firearms; for they pay no attention to the legislation in the first place.

Instead of prayer we need stiff laws that PUNISH those who use a firearm in the commission of a crime. (Which we already have in some municipalities). Then we need to ENFORCE these laws and prepare to house these animals in appropriate facilities for the balance of their lives; or kill them as the law deems appropriate.

[Locutus]

One thing that Obama pointed out along these lines that's true.  We don't see these kind of mass shootings happening in any other developed country other than the United States. 

Why?

That said, gun control is pretty much prohibited by the Constitution, so regardless of how much clamoring is done by either side in that debate, it's not going to change anything because the Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. 

That, however, doesn't change the fact that it happens only here, and that's terribly sad. 

[Palehorse]

One thing that Obama pointed out along these lines that's true.  We don't see these kind of mass shootings happening in any other developed country other than the United States. 

Why?

That said, gun control is pretty much prohibited by the Constitution, so regardless of how much clamoring is done by either side in that debate, it's not going to change anything because the Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. 

That, however, doesn't change the fact that it happens only here, and that's terribly sad.

Not necessarily true though. Look at that guy a few years back that shot all those people in one of those Nordic countries. . .

I will agree it doesn't seem to happen with the frequency that it does here, but then we don't have groups like ISIS infesting our country either.

[Palehorse]

Here's more: (Bolded one is the one I was talking about in my prior post)

March 13, 1996
Dunblane, Scotland   16 children and one teacher killed at Dunblane Primary School by Thomas Hamilton, who then killed himself. 10 others wounded in attack.

March 1997
Sanaa, Yemen   Eight people (six students and two others) at two schools killed by Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri.

April 28, 1999
Taber, Alberta, Canada   One student killed, one wounded at W. R. Myers High School in first fatal high school shooting in Canada in 20 years. The suspect, a 14-year-old boy, had dropped out of school after he was severely ostracized by his classmates.

Dec. 7, 1999
Veghel, Netherlands   One teacher and three students wounded by a 17-year-old student.

March 2000
Branneburg, Germany   One teacher killed by a 15-year-old student, who then shot himself. The shooter has been in a coma ever since.

an. 18, 2001
Jan, Sweden   One student killed by two boys, ages 17 and 19.

Feb. 19, 2002
Freising, Germany   Two killed in Eching by a man at the factory from which he had been fired; he then traveled to Freising and killed the headmaster of the technical school from which he had been expelled. He also wounded another teacher before killing himself.

April 26, 2002
Erfurt, Germany   13 teachers, two students, and one policeman killed, ten wounded by Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, at the Johann Gutenberg secondary school. Steinhaeuser then killed himself.

April 29, 2002
Vlasenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina   One teacher killed, one wounded by Dragoslav Petkovic, 17, who then killed himself.

Sept. 28, 2004
Carmen de Patagones, Argentina   Three students killed and 6 wounded by a 15-year-old Argentininan student in a town 620 miles south of Buenos Aires.

Sept. 13, 2006
Montreal, Canada   Kimveer Gill, 25, opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at Dawson College. Anastasia De Sousa, 18, died and more than a dozen students and faculty were wounded before Gill killed himself.

Nov. 7, 2007
Tuusula, Finland   An 18-year-old student in southern Finland shot and killed five boys, two girls, and the female principal at Jokela High School. At least 10 others were injured. The gunman shot himself and died from his wounds in the hospital.

Sept. 23, 2008
Kauhajoki, Finland   A 20-year-old male student shot and killed at least nine students and himself at a vocational college in Kauhajok, 330km (205 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki.

March 11, 2009
Winnenden, Germany   Fifteen people were shot and killed at Albertville Technical High School in southwestern Germany by a 17-year-old boy who attended the same school.

April 30, 2009
Azerbaijan, Baku   A Georgian citizen of Azerbaijani descent killed 12 students and staff at Azerbaijan State Oil Academy. Several others were wounded.

April 7, 2011
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil   A 23-year-old former student returned to his public elementary school in Rio de Janeiro and began firing, killing 12 children and seriously wounding more than a dozen others, before shooting himself in the head. While Brazil has seen gang-related violence in urban areas, this was the worst school shooting the country has ever seen.

July 22, 2011
Tyrifjorden, Buskerud, Norway   A gunman disguised as a policeman opened fire at a camp for young political activists on the island of Utoya. The gunman kills 68 campers, including personal friends of Prime Minister Stoltenberg. Police arrested Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian who had been been linked to an anti-Islamic group.

March 19, 2012
Toulouse, France   Mohammed Merah, a French man of Algerian descent, shot and killed a rabbi, two of his children, and another child at a Jewish school. Police believe he had earlier shot and killed three paratroopers. Merah said he was a member of Al Qaeda and that he was seeking revenge for the killing of Palestinian children.

September 21, 2013
Nairobi, Kenya   Shabab militants, who are based in Somalia, attacked an upscale mall, killing nearly 70 people and wounding about 175. The siege lasted for three days, with persistent fighting between government troops and militants. The attack was meticulously planned, and the militants proved to be challenging for the government to dislodge from the Westgate mall.

January 7, 2015
Paris, France   Three masked gunmen storm the office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly magazine, and kill 12 people, including the paper's top editors and cartoonists, as well as two police officers. The provocative magazine is known for publishing charged cartoons that satirized Islamic terrorists and the Prophet Muhammad.

[Locutus]

So that's 18 events that you cited since 1999.  There are probably more that you didn't find, but compare that to the rate in our country.  These are "active shooter" incidents in the United States in recent years.  160 in basically the same time period, and there are probably more here too; a lot more probably.  The trend is up.   

[Palehorse]

So that's 18 events that you cited since 1999.  There are probably more that you didn't find, but compare that to the rate in our country.  These are "active shooter" incidents in the United States in recent years.  160 in basically the same time period, and there are probably more here too; a lot more probably.  The trend is up.   

I don't dispute that they are happening with greater frequency, or so it seems, in the U.S.. But in countries that have draconian firearm laws and in those that have none, they still happen. Over regulation of an already law abiding group of citizens does nothing to positively impact the problem, but sure does wonders for boosting the governmental revenue streams.

If we were to completely disarm every single law abiding citizen in this nation, only the criminals will have firearms. That doesn't sound like a solution to me. In fact, it sounds like a way to turn law abiding citizens into criminals. . .

Oh, and Colt has filed for bankruptcy: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/17/dropped-by-the-u-s-military-colt-goes-bankrupt.html

[Palehorse]

Statistically the U.S. is the 3rd most populace country in the world, so our incident rate surrounding mass killing events should be larger than average.  Not excusing it but trying to explain in part why such occurrences seem to happen more frequently here.

This would especially true if, theoretically, these things end up being driven by a mental or physical defect that occurs with a particular frequency rate within human beings. (No proof of this since very little to nothing is known surrounding why these individuals do such things).

Add to this the media's willingness, especially within the U.S., to turn such events into circus events and over time it would seem the U.S. is worse than anywhere else in the world. I don't believe that, but admittedly I am not so sure either.

[Purplelady1040]

It is sad what happened. We are in Charleston for vacation and I can't explain the grief of a city. The people here are so friendly.
Maybe the reason, we don't hear about it in other countries is the media is more controlled over there, I don't know if that is true or not but just saying that. Our media is all about what makes news-good, bad or indifferent, it's what is popular.
I think we need to be making tougher questions for allowing people to buy guns and treatment for mental illness needs to be a major help in health care. I did like what the judge said yesterday in the hearing and that is his parents are victims also, whether the system failed them, they failed as parents in getting him help or what happened. It is just 21 years ago, this kid and yes, he is still a kid to me, even though, he is an adult was a baby. A baby full of pure and innocence. Somewhere along the way, his brain got warped with hate and evil. Fixing it will not solve the problem of what he did but maybe it can prevent it from happening again and somewhere else.
Evil exists when good people sit idly by and do nothing.